Me vs. My Cat

[WhatUPSbox?]

Last night I took a shot at a rat on top of the stump in the red light setup. I heard the pellet hit the back stop and the rat ran down the stump. I thought, I must have pulled the shot, bummer. I looked this morning and nothing to be found.
Well, I had the trailcam set up so I looked at the footage. The rat only made it a couple of feet and fortunately was done in less than 15 sec. Must have been a clean pass through. So I look at more footage and 40 min. later the cleanup crew came through. I just hope he put it away from the house.

[Moke]

wow! so awesome.


Me, last night,....
A pack of coyotes came down to drink from Sarges bird bath.  There were 3 or 4 of them. Her bird bath is probably 10' from my lit target zone.
They lapped up a bunch of water, and, yipped and jumped around like they were playing. They were within 15' from me, and maybe even 10', and had no idea that I was hiding behind my blind.

I also popped a Rat, last night, that was still behind my blind; just barely emerging around the end of it. It was doing the Kilroy Was Here thing, head and nose over the backstop base, and then disappearing. It finally showed up again, just wide of the backstop, still behind it, and sat up like it was eating a sunflower seed, and, ping, it was hit.  It thrashed its way under the same bush that the rattler was under from a few nights ago. So, I just listened to its thrashing for a moment, while trying to reach it with a rake, but,... no trophy pics.

[WhatUPSbox?]

Crazy that the coyotes get that close.
I've been trying to figure out if dead rats are supposed to go in the trash or the green waste bin. I may have found an alternate solution. 

[Packy]

Read the #2 thread first then here to read # 1. Great stuff Moke,  Be Well, Bandito.

[Moke]

Coyotes,....
A couple of sessions this week had a literal pack of Coyotes within 15', and maybe even closer. They were down to drink from Sarges bird bath water bowl.  While drinking, a couple of them started into playing and yipping, kicking the 3/4" gravel around, and yipping, and chattering with each other.
Their pack was perhaps 4 or 5 Coyotes in each event.


And, from a couple of nights ago,....
The rodent in the images, a Mouse, scrambled onto the scene, and stopped.  It was in the middle of the W-A-M Gallery, so I took a shot.  I hit it, and it seemed to disappear. So, I went to bed.  The next morning, I went out to pour off the coffee press grounds, and found the Mouse. i had hit it, and it just rolled over and died, and fell into s small depression in the gravel, where it was digging out a Gopher hole, searching for buried seed? That depression was small, but large enough that when the mouse fell into it, it became obscured by the shadows made by pieces pf gravel. It was flush to the surface of the surrounding soil, and I missed finding it with a scope scanning search.

Last night, at around 9pm (my bedtime), I went out for a look into the Red light District, and, I spotted another Mouse, and quickly dispatched it.  It went flying off into the bushes on contact, like so much shrapnel.  Rattlesnakes keep me from salvaging the carcass at night.

[Moke]

Read the #2 thread first then here to read # 1. Great stuff Moke,  Be Well, Bandito.

Welcome to pt. one!

[WhatUPSbox?]

My version of the red light district is working well, took another adult rat last night. I checked the rat and then left it out for the food chain. Unfortunately the trailcam didn't catch who took it, but it was gone in an hour. Probably possum but there is a cat that comes through some nights. It would be funny if it brought it home as a proud hunter.

[Back_Roads]

 LOL person who finds said rat with pellet wound, search cat for weapons

[WhatUPSbox?]

Yeah, made me think of a comic I saw the other day.

[Packy]

Must be the cat's wife. I can almost hear the derision in her voice. Be Well, Packy.

[Moke]

So, I've converted my Crosman 2289 from a .22 w/ 14" barrel, to a .177 w/ a 16" barrel. Its break-in was on a small mouse at 35' at the Whack-A-Mole Gallery. Then, last night, the first Rat came into scope view.

My first Rat with the .177, Crosman 1789 16" rifle





and, its first official rodent, a tiny speck of a Mouse at 35':

[Moke]

And, I made another trip out to the Red Light District last night,....

[WhatUPSbox?]

Nice shot on that micro-mouse!
I'm embarrassed to say I had a much easier shot yesterday.
The clay saucer is a bird feeder (mostly for the flock of spice finches we have in the area).
This unlucky guy got his tail completely tangled in the supporting wire. He was pretty exhausted by the time I found him in the morning and put him out of his misery. I was going to leave him out for the nightly possum patrol but that would have given our furry hunter all day to claim the kill. So into the trash it went.

[Moke]

Have I mentioned our rodents?

My wifes grocery-getter has been inundated with the dang things.  They've chewed wiring, clogged AC vents, crapped/peed on the seats, etc.
I tried one of those sonic devices that is supposed to be offensive to them. Results? Dead batteries, and, still with rodents. I tried spring traps, and this proved to be a total failure. 
I then tried sticky traps, and these worked great.  But, the mice stayed alive, and stuck to the trap.  And those traps are sticky as heck.
So, to dispatch those rodents, I use my Beeman P17, and a pellet to the head at close range.
I finally seem to have gained the upper hand on this battle.

How bad did it get?
My wife and I were driving home from a dinner out.  We were just coming onto the last curve in the highway, and my wife, in the passenger seat, she says,.... Mike, there is a snake in the car.
She is really good about snakes, and, knew what it was, a California King Snake (black/brown with yellow stripes). These are a harmless, and very desirable constrictors. Her reaction was shoulders shrugged.
So, I was on a long sweeping turn, just a 1/4 mile from home. And knowing that it was a harmless snake, I drove on home.  I was actually glad to see it in there, and crawling around the dashboard hidden places. So, we left the doors open that evening, and, never saw a snake in there again.

Oh the stories I can tell about this place, and snakes.

[Packy]

Weellllll, do tell Moke. Packy.

[Moke]

I've encountered 18 Rattlesnakes in our 12 years here. All were caught, and released (except a recent one, at night, that got away. Its still out there). They were all brought down to the river bottom preserve at the end of our road, and released.
In that time, I've had two directly between my feet; one was too cold to try anything, and the other one left me alone for some reason.

The cold one was under a large tarp that covered a firewood pile, and that had gone derelict and all torn up. It was one of those tarps with a rope affixed around the outer edge. It was out to the rear of the property, and right next to a really old shed that was leaning hard to the right. I had plans of getting there, and cleaning this all up.
I grabbed the tarp, and started pulling it out into an open space. The rope around the edge of the tarp was largely torn free, and flapping. And I kept seeing it as a snake.
Well, I got it out there into the clear, and started folding it up to fit into the trash bin. While I was folding the tarp, i looked down and there was probably a 3' Rattler coiled up right between my feet, exactly centered. But in the January cold and wet, it just stayed coiled and silent.  So, i gathered Number One up, dropped it into a bucket and lid, and hauled it down to the river bottom.
My guess is that it was coiled up, and hibernating in the tarp, and feeding on rodents from the firewood pile.

How about a Rattler on your black front door mat on Christmas morning?  yep.  He was trying to warm up in the sun, just outside the front door.
Also caught and released.

Or, the large really hot Rattler that I stepped on at sunset on my high school graduation sunset viewing overlooking our surf break. 
It was stretched across the hiking trail, and looked just like all of the pine branches and needles.  I stepped on it at mid-section, and immediately knew that I had stepped on a Rattler. My friend was behind me, and he said that I lumped vertically out of his sight, and landed a few feet away. It immediately coiled and rattled, and started striking out in all directions.  I was really lucky to not have been bit on this one.

[Moke]

Last night was a Two Ratter.

I've spent the last few days doing upgrades and renovations to my Crosman 2289.
It has been brought from a .22 caliber 14" barrel, and changed out to a 16" .177 barrel.  I also added a flat top valve, and, overhauled the main pumping pivot point. And,.... after years of thinking about it, I finally screwed mounted the pistol grip, eliminating the electrical tape wrap.

The sun started setting, and I was becoming anxious, as the night before was a total bomb; nothing.
So, around 8:30, I pumped up, and loaded a CPHP 7.9gr, and made sure all of the patio lights were off.  I sat at my blind, and, I couldn't believe my eyes,... There was a Rat already on the seed bait, and within 30 seconds of sitting, it was declared Dead on the Scene.

Then, at about 1:30am I got up to take a leak, and, looked out the window, and there was round two vacuuming up seed.
I pumped up, loaded another CPHP, and, slipped out to the blind.  It was still sucking up seed, and, it was dispatched within 30 seconds of sitting. I was back in bed within a couple of minutes,... zzzz zzzz

this one presented in black and white,... because the camera went weirdly green under my red light for some reason.

The tongs,... because I refuse to touch this vermin.  They were also used to mistakenly grab a nighttime Rattlesnake by the tail, quite recently. It was not thrilled with that action.

[airgunaut]

Snake in the car again? Hey, that’ll keep the little gnawing furries away.

Mouse pee stink lasts a looooong time.

[avator]

If we ever found a snake of any kind in our truck Betty Lou would never get in it again. I swear she locks the house door at night so snakes can't come in.   
I told her not to worry... most snakes knock first.

[airgunaut]

If we ever found a snake of any kind in our truck Betty Lou would never get in it again. I swear she locks the house door at night so snakes can't come in.   
I told her not to worry... most snakes knock first.

Snakes clear toilet clogs. 🤪